Comparison of steam sterilization conditions efficiency in the treatment of Infectious Health Care Waste

International audience; Many studies show that the treatment of Infectious Health Care Waste (IHCW) in steam sterilization devices at usual operating standards does not allow for proper treatment of Infectious Health Care Waste (IHCW). Including a grinding component before sterilization allows better waste sterilization, but any hard metal object in the waste can damage the shredder. The first objective of the study is to verify that efficient IHCW treatment can occur at standard operating parameters defined by the contact time–temperature couple in steam treatment systems without a pre-mixing/fragmenting or pre-shredding step. The second objective is to establish scientifically whether the standard operation conditions for a steam treatment system including a step of pre-mixing/fragmenting were sufficient to destroy the bacterial spores in IHCW known to be the most difficult to treat. Results show that for efficient sterilization of dialysis cartridges in a pilot 60L steam treatment system, the process would require more than 20 min at 144 °C without a pre-mixing/fragmenting step. In a 720L steam treatment system including pre-mixing/fragmenting paddles, only 10 min at 144 °C are required to sterilize IHCW proved to be sterilization challenges such as dialysis cartridges and diapers in normal conditions of rolling.